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Back In the Dark Save as PDF
Chapters (90)
  1. Cover
  2. IN THE DARK
  3. PRELUDE
  4. 1
  5. 2
  6. 3
  7. 4
  8. 5
  9. 6
  10. WIND LISTENERS
  11. Blind Abing
  12. 1
  13. 2
  14. 3
  15. 4
  16. 5
  17. 6
  18. 7
  19. 8
  20. 9
  21. 10
  22. 11
  23. 12
  24. 13
  25. 14
  26. 15
  27. 16
  28. 17
  29. 18
  30. 19
  31. 20
  32. 21
  33. WIND READERS
  34. An Angel with Problems
  35. 1
  36. 2
  37. 3
  38. 4
  39. 5
  40. 6
  41. 7
  42. 8
  43. 9
  44. 10
  45. 11
  46. 12
  47. 13
  48. 14
  49. 15
  50. 16
  51. 17
  52. 18
  53. 19
  54. 20
  55. 21
  56. 22
  57. 23
  58. 24
  59. 25
  60. 26
  61. 27
  62. 28
  63. 29
  64. 30
  65. THE SHADOW OF CHEN ERHU
  66. Diary Excerpts: 25 March 1987
  67. 26 March
  68. 27 March
  69. 28 March
  70. 2 April
  71. The Letter: Day One
  72. Day Two
  73. Day Three
  74. Day Four
  75. Day Five
  76. Day Six
  77. Day Seven
  78. Two Old Letters
  79. WIND-CATCHERS
  80. A Vietnamese Ghost Story
  81. 1
  82. 2
  83. 3
  84. 4
  85. 5
  86. 6
  87. 7
  88. 8
  89. 9
  90. THE BEGINNING

This is how it happened. In the spring of that year, the military chatter of X Country that we were responsible for monitoring simply stopped broadcasting for a total of fifty-two hours. Across its entire broadcast range, every radio station, without exception, went silent. In the history of covert radio communications there had been no record of anything like this happening before. If you were to say that this silence came about because of a tactical military need, then this would have to be considered an unprecedented strategy. To tell you the truth, it would be no strategy at all, it would be madness. Think about it: in those fifty-two hours, how many world-altering events could have occurred? In truth, anything could have happened! Our enemy’s actions were downright insane.

Yet, despite their lunacy, they were victorious. Over the course of those fifty-two hours, nothing at all happened. That was their first triumph. You could say that was a piece of luck. As for their second victory, it was the amount of energy we expended in trying to find them; they forced us to work incredibly hard. During those fifty-two hours our enemy was able to change everything – their equipment, radio stations, radio times, call signals, all of it. What does this mean? It means that over the course of those fifty-two hours, all of the listening we had carried out for the previous ten years, all the sweat and toil, the accumulated intelligence, the experience, the tricks of the trade we had learnt, the techniques, everything, was wiped clean: we were back to zero. That was how they left us far behind them. In that moment, all of our agents, our technology, our equipment, the whole lot, was useless. In the language of the trade, Unit 701 had been blinded.

Thinking back: in those chaotic years when war could have broken out at any moment, it was completely terrifying.

2

News of the situation soon reached the upper levels of command, which resulted in a terse response: we do not relish the prospect of war, but we like being beaten by the enemy even less.

The meaning was plain: this situation had to be remedied, and fast.